SANTORINI, GREECE

Tuesday, September 23rd (continued)

I was grateful to almost be off the ferry from Mykonos and back on land. Our ferry was already 2 hours behind schedule because of the high seas. 

Somehow, we managed to get to the front of the line to disembark. There were literally hundreds of people behind us! We went running down the ramp when they opened the gates. At the bottom of the ramp was a huge puddle from the water the ferry had churned up. Nick jumped over the puddle, but then his kiteboarding bag went crashing through it. It sent a wave forward onto the back of his legs and shoes. He was soaked from the knee down. Nick said he was so embarrassed because there were hundreds of people watching him. Haha! I'm laughing just thinking about it. I chose to just walk around the puddle. :P

It was cool, windy, and damp out. At first, we were both a little sad that our ferry had arrived late. We wanted to see the sunset from Santorini, but it had been so windy, and hazy, no one could see the sunset. We didn't feel like we missed out! 

We thought we were going to just get a taxi to our hotel until we found out that a taxi ride was 40 Euro. Yikes. There were several car rental companies around. We decided to rent a car for 30 Euro/day instead of the expensive taxi ride. We were grateful to have the car, since we had so much luggage. We also debated trying to get an ATV, but it really wouldn't have worked well. 

Our hotel was just outside of the beautiful town of Oia. Somehow, in the dark, we found it. 

It was hidden down a back alley. (Sounds sketchy, but the hotel was awesome!)

We dropped our bags, and went out in search of a restaurant. We were both so hungry! 

Our first view of Oia. 

I couldn't tell you the name of the restaurant because the name just looked like shapes; a triangle, square, circle, circle, square. Haha! 

I ate souvlaki. It wasn't nearly as good as the souvlaki from Athens. The chicken was delicious, but it was so much better in a pita with french fries and onion. Yum! We also had fava, and spicy feta. Fava beans aren't my favorite, but the spicy feta was delicious. 

It was also at this meal that Nick admitted that he gets "hAngry." The combination of being hungry and tired makes him "hAngry." Haha! The first step is admitting it, right?

On the walk back to our hotel, we saw a salon with the fish pedicure. Nick suggested that we try it. It was only 10 Euro for 10 minutes. 

We had to thoroughly clean our feet and legs before sticking them in the water. The woman working at the salon asked if we had any scabs or cuts. I told her I had one, so she covered it with a band aid. Nick had a big scab, but decided not to tell her. 

(Nick's feet)

I put my feet in first. They tickled so bad! My feet aren't normally very ticklish. 

Then Nick put his feet in. The fish looked like they were in a frenzy. They were going for his legs and feet. 

Nick could hardly stand it. The fish were definitely tickling his feet. He kept flinching. One of the bigger fish was going after his scab. About half way through the pedicure, he pulled his right foot out of the water. The fish had succeeded in pulling his scab off, and his foot was bleeding. Nick was screaming like a little girl. "They're vampire fish. They just want my blood." Ha! That's probably why they ask us ahead of time if we have any scabs! :)

I have to say my feet and skin have never felt smoother. I wish I could get a full body fish massage!

Wednesday, September 24th

When we walked out our door the next morning, we were greeted by these cute kittens! They were so playful.

Maria's Place Hotel - where we stayed.

That morning there was some wind, so Nick went in search of a beach. I went with him in hopes that we would find a cafe for me to watch from. We found one! The owner looked at us like we were crazy. It was SO windy and cold! We sat at the cafe for 10 minutes waiting to be served. The owner didnt look like he was very interested in serving us. We were fridged, so we left and went back up toward our hotel to find a cafe. 

We came across a french bakery. They had warm chocolate croissant and cappuccinos. Yes, please! They coffee was delicious! I told Nick I wanted to go back there every morning we were in Santorini. 

After breakfast, Nick went back to the beach and I stayed at our hotel to read, write, and soak up some sun by the pool.

This was the view from our pool. It certainly isn't as pretty as the views from the main part of Oia because this is the "back" side of the island, but I still enjoyed it! 

It's hard to tell, but there is an orange kite along the coastline. That's Nick! I could see him from our hotel pool! 

After an hour and a half, Nick came back. His kite was too small for the amount of wind. We both got dressed and wandered through Oia in search of lunch.

There was a photo op around every corner. 

We spotted a place for lunch with a view. This restaurant was called, "218."

The view here was spectacular, and the food was great. The one part of this meal I documented was that it marked the first time Nick told me he wanted to do a cruise with me. Yes, folks he said it! He said, "I wouldn't mind stuffing my face with food every day on a boat." Haha! I'll take it! 

Not a bad view to enjoy while eating a delicious Greek salad. :)

This friendly kitten kept us company.

After lunch we went for a stroll through Oia. 

Not many people rode around on donkey's in Oia, but I found one!

Nick said this photo was National Geography worthy. Ha! He's funny.

We also were trying to find places to take photos at sunset that night. I think we found the spot! 

Nick was more impressed with his new glasses. :)

 There were at least 3 dozen brides we saw walking through Oia each day. I could see why it's a popular wedding destination. I had to get at least one photo of a bride while we were there.

We walked back to our hotel to get our suits on and drive to Ammoudi Bay. It's located just below Oia. Parking was a bit of a nightmare, but we made it!

Ammoudi Bay

Fresh catch

I think Ammoudi Bay was my favorite spot on Santorini, after Oia. 

Calamari anyone?

We hiked about 1km over rocks in sandals to a swimming hole. 

A funny tourist jumped from this spot and did a belly flop. Ouch! Not to mention, everyone standing on shore saw it. :) Oops.

Nick decided to try jumping closer to shore. 

The people below him in the water were all cheering him on. Wahoo!

I still can't believe I got this shot right as his feet hit the water! 

Success!

We hiked back along the crazy, rocky path. I was really wishing I hadn't worn sandals. Bad choice. Walking barefoot probably would've been easier. 

Oia above Ammoudi.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is probably my favorite photo I've ever taken. It makes me laugh so hard! Hahaha!

Nick and I walked back up to our car to drive back to our hotel. The road was really steep back up to Oia. We saw a couple that was trying to hitch hike back. We stopped and picked 'em up. They were an older couple from San Antonio, and they were celebrating their honeymoon! We don't normally pick up hitchhikers, but the island was small, and we knew they were likely just trying to get back up the hill. It was fun meeting new people!

We dropped them off at the top of the hill, changed, and raced to our sunset spot. 

I saw this cute puppy awaiting the arrival of his owner. He was there every night. So cute!

We staked our claim an hour and a half before sunset. You think I'm crazy! There were already other people there doing the same thing. 

We got to enjoy watching professional photographers and models snapping photos near us. It was quite the show. 

A couple came by and asked us to take their photo. The man gave me specific instructions on how to use his camera because it was a professional. I took about 10 different photos for them. Then he offered to take our photo. He had owned the same camera before! He knew exactly what to do. He probably knew how to use my camera better than I do! He took my favorite sunset photos! 

I realized that the gentleman taking our photo was the same guy I had seen do a bellyflop from the cliff earlier. We had a good laugh about it. He and his wife were characters. We loved getting to talk to them; I just wish I had gotten their names! I'm kicking myself that I didn't. 

Nick took over camera duties as the sun was setting. He was getting so angry because people kept cutting in front of him. Hah!

He usually gets so mad that I use filters on my photos, but he discovered a filter he likes. Ohhh! So artsy! :)

After the sun set behind the buildings, we decided to walk over to the edge of Oia. 

Holy moly we found the crowds! And we were pushing against it! We spotted a restaurant on the cliff, so we ducked in there and asked to be seated. 

It was perfect timing! We got the last table at Koatipo. Another couple on the other side of the restaurant was trying to get in at the same time. We were seated first. The other couple was told the wait would be an hour! Yikes! This is Nicks, "success" face. He was giggling like a little school girl. 

We had a delicious meal, and then scouted out our sunset spot for the next night. Oia is so incredibly beautiful. It is definitely one of my favorite places in the world. 

Thursday, September 25th

Our last full day on Santorini we decided to hike from Oia to Fira, the main town. We started our morning off with coffee and a chocolate brioche from our favorite french bakery, and we were off! Rick Steves mentions that the 11km hike could take 4 hours. We were started our hike at 10am! Yikes! It was already hot too.

The first 2 km were uphill in the sun. I reapplied sunscreen every 20 minutes. Here's the view looking back toward Oia. 

We asked some other tourists along the path where they had walked from. They said they were staying at a town near Fira, and they had been hiking for over 2 hours. Oh, man. We had a long way to go. We tried to pick up the pace. 

I loved the caldera views. 

Kind of crazy thinking we were on a volcano!! 

After 2.15 hours we made it to Fira! It wasn't nearly as long as others had said. 

We found a restaurant with a great view and decided to stay. 

After lunch we walked farther into Fira. 

The path leads right along the cliff edge. You get spectacular views and a cool breeze. There's Fira! It definitely wasn't as pretty as Oia. 

As I was enjoying the views of Fira, I heard water running behind me. There was a dog on the inside of this door peeing in between the cracks. The stream was running down the front of the door. (At least we were hoping it was a dog) Eeew!

There are two different ways of getting from the port in Fira to the town. One is the cable cars..

The other is by donkey. I didn't see any donkeys, but you could certainly smell them and see droppings on the path. 

We walked farther down the shopping lanes. Nick had enough after 10 minutes. 

We walked to the bus station to catch a ride back. That was a whole story in and of itself. There really wasn't much direction given by the ticket office at the bus station. We asked them for the bus to Oia. They said to just wait. Ok. We waited about 15 minutes. A bus pulled in and a mass of people went swarming over to it. Every kid in Santorini was trying to get on the bus. I think they must have just gotten out of school. They started pushing and shoving to get on. We pushed right back. Nick and I were some of the only tourists that got on. The other tourists were too nice. Haha! The bus ride was cramped and hot. What you can't see in the photo are all of the kids behind us. They were yelling and screaming in Greek. That 20 minute ride felt like one of the longest bus rides of my life. 

When we returned, we threw our swimsuits on and headed for the opposite side of the island to see the red, black, and white sand beaches. 

We found the red sand beach!

It looks like Nick's walking on Mars. 

I was slightly disappointed. The sand was mostly black with a few red rocks. 

I was also surprised by how many people were on these beaches, even though it was quite a hike to get to.

Plus, it's hard to tell, but the water was really dirty. 

We moved on to the black sand beach on the other side of the island...

These are the vineyards on Santorini. They're everywhere. Also, they are all grown on the ground due to the high winds on the island! 

I remembered that someone had mentioned to drive to the highest point on Santorini. We were about to pass by it, so we quickly bolted to the top of the mountain. It was a pretty amazing view! 

We ran up, snapped a few photos, and jumped back in the car. On to the beach!!!

Wahoo! Driving in Santorini was a bit crazy. There are lots of slow, old drivers.

Maybe we were the crazy ones! :)

We also noticed that there are a lot of stores along the road that have the word "secret" in them. Is it a secret because it's on a secluded island? Or are the items in your store a secret?  I don't get it. 

We found the black sand beach. There weren't too many people because it was getting late. 

We bought an iced coffee, so we wouldn't have to pay for the seats. 

We considered laying out towels, but the beach was too rocky.

There's a little bit of sand there! :)

This sweet dog was playing in the water. He didn't belong to anyone, so I played with him. 

An argument started between two employees at the sports shop nearby. The old men were screaming at each other in Greek. After watching them for 20 minutes, Nick finally figured out that one man had taken the plug out of a jet ski. The jet ski was sinking it had taken so much water in.  It was strange sitting on a beach and hearing people yelling and screaming at each other. Beaches were supposed to be relaxing! 

We headed back to Oia to get dressed and find our sunset spot. 

The crowds beat us. I decided to try and race through the crowd. I figured that most of those people were from the cruises or on a tour of Oia. I went running through. Nick followed behind. At one point, a french man started yelling at Nick. "Why should I let you pass?" Nick said that his wife was up ahead. The man said, "Oh, but then you are ahead of me." Haha! Nick said, "I'm sorry, I can't control my wife." Hahaha! 

We found our spot! There were hundreds of other people there already. Doh! And it was so cloudy we could hardly see the sun. Oh well! We stood our ground anyway. 

I loved the lighting on the town behind us. 

Looking back toward the caldera - away from the sunset. 

We had several people try and tell us to move. Haha! We had already been standing there for 30 minutes. Nick wouldn't budge. 

Once the sun set, we decided we should have dinner down in Ammoudi Bay. We could have walked ALL the way back to our hotel through the crowd to get to our car, or we could walk down the steep steps. We went for the steps.

There were donkey droppings all along the path. Nick carried me half way down. Such a good husband!

We found our restaurant. The man seating the guests was totally enamored with Nick. He got us a great table right on the water!

After our delicious seafood dinner, Nick went up to pay. I waited at the table for 15 minutes before breaking up the party. The man that seated us was talking Nick's ear off. He wanted nothing to do with me. He eventually asked Nick to take a photo with him. He gave me his email address to have me send the photo to him. Once we left, Nick told me to erase the photo and email. He actually got really mad! To which I say, if you are that opposed to a photo being seen...why take it in the first place? And of course, I deleted the photo and email address!

We hiked back up to the top of Oia. I think we got our exercise in for the day!

There were so many dogs and cats on Santorini. It made me wonder how they got there, and why none of them have owners. I wanted to take them all home!

What an eventful day! I was sad to think about leaving Santorini. I wish we had stayed all 5 days on Santorini and skipped Mykonos. 

Friday, September 26th

Our last morning on Santorini, we decided to try a different cafe with a caldera view. All of the seats with the best views were taken, so we waited for 20 minutes. It was worth it!

This is Nick's sad face because we have to leave soon.

I ordered greek yogurt with honey and nuts. That's a great way to start the day!

Oh how I will miss these views! I won't miss the crowds! There were 4 cruise ships there that day. You could definitely feel that there were more people on the island.  Usually there are only 2 cruise ships on any given day.

I had to laugh. I hadn't ever been sunburned in Greece even though it had been sunny every day! And I had been sunburned on our trip to Ireland. Ha!

When we got down to the boat dock, there were already hundreds of people waiting. I went to retrieve our tickets. We got the last seats available. They were at the front of the boat. Dang. The men we returned our car to gave us a, "good luck," as we went to get in line. They told us there were some pretty big storms coming down from Athens, and we would likely hit them along the way. Oh joy! 

The 6 hour ride was more like 8. It was really rough seas. It was also really warm inside the boat. It was a bad combination, but we survived. I don't think I'll likely sign up for a ferry ride or any boat ride during "shoulder season." (especially on boats that don't let you go outside.)

We immediately got in line for the taxi to take us to our hotel, once we were on dry land. Our driver must have been on drugs. He was acting very strange, and talking to himself. At one point, we were going over 150km on the freeway. Somehow we made it to our hotel in one piece. 

We stayed at the Sofitel Hotel in Athens. It was our last treat to ourselves after a pretty grueling day on the water, a crazy taxi ride, and just having to leave Santorini. We ordered "TV trays" from room service. The meals were half the cost of the regular meals, and just as big! An entire table was brought to our room filled with beautiful dishes of delicious food! After the waiter left, Nick and I danced around our table of food. Haha! We were so hungry and tired. It makes me laugh just thinking about it. 

We really loved Santorini and Athens! I would go back in a heartbeat. I think we will be sure to pass up Mykonos our next time around.